Sneakylong The problem with you 'bootstrappers' is
Substitute 'bootstrappers' with 'blacks,' 'whites,' 'libtards,' etc., and it sounds like you're painting with the same broad brush you chastise others for - yours is just a different color. Not impressed.
I'm trying to show you that people can feel differently about an issue without coming from a place evil. I don't hate the poor. Do you actually hate the rich? I do hate the lazy, because I come from a family of lazy. I don't think they deserve the fruits of your labor or anyone else's.
I believe that if a person grows up working hard to make a life for themselves, they can succeed. The extent of that success will vary. The depths from which one has to climb will vary. I climbed more than some, surely less than others. We can choose to dwell on our misfortune or rise above it. It's a shame that some have so much to rise above, and that pieces of that have to do with where and to whom you're born, and even what color you are.
Some have it easy, many have it hard. But hard isn't impossible. We're becoming a society of victims, comparing who has more reasons to fail.
Dicking around throughout your youth, making poor decisions, developing no marketable skills, and ending up with only low-paying job prospects doesn't seem like the fault of anyone else. If you're trying to make a "living wage" doing something an unskilled teenager can do, how is that Walmart's fault?
I'd like people to take responsibility for their lives. Again - I'm a helpful guy, but I don't feel that anyone's need entitles them to my resources. I like the soldier mentality:
"I'm shot."
"Can you walk?"
"Yeah."
"Then keep going."
"I'm poor, I will have to work a lot harder than other people to have a comfortable life."
"Is it impossible?"
"No."
"Then keep going."
In today's world, it seems like people are told they should give up, instead. How can a poor/black/underprivileged/non-white child EVER succeed in such a shitty, racist world?! Well, they can, and do.
We can all do better for each other, and we should try to make the world a better place every day. I don't have a problem with a socialist view of the world where charitable acts are encouraged and celebrated - I just don't think that should be the government's role in our lives.